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Feb. 14th, 2007 07:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickToday, like a lot of the people on my flist, I had a snow day. I got up. I drove to work (through the snow, but small-green-truckie has 4WD and is reasonably capable with it). I shoveled sidewalks (again). I drove home. Road at home had not particularly improved during the day. I dozed. And now I'm sitting in front of the fire, hoping to be able to feel my legs before bedtime.
I do not doze particularly often. It's loud. It's time-consuming because the dozer, she is not made for speed. It's not something where you say, "Y'know what I'd like to do today? I'd like to drive the bulldozer around!" So, this thing that I do once or maybe twice a year, I could use more practice at it. I suck, honestly. Every time I climb up on the poor dozer, I have to figure out what I'm doing all over again. I should probably take notes. Here are some notes that I should probably take.
1. The dozer can of starting fluid, it does not spray so much as dribble. This stll seemed amazingly efficacious, but I think I should invest in a more aerosol can of starting fluid anyway.
2. The dozer, she shifts into different gears with less swearing if I remember to put the longer left-side lever (which would probably say something like back-neutral-forward if the lables were in any way readable) into neutral (that's the one in the middle) before trying to shift gears instead of after I've tried three or four times and can't figure out why it is not working.
3. I will remember to crank up throttle control (short knob on left side, has notches) to 3/4 or more before expecting dozer to run happily. Also: Is it just me, or does the throttle kind of lag a bit? I mean, I jog it up and then I wait five seconds and then there's Brrrrbrrprbrrrprbp! It takes a while, is what I'm sayin'.
4. I will not expect the dozer to move forward if I have my feet on the pedals. The pedals are for stopping. (The left pedal shuts down the fuel to a slow idle. The right pedal brakes the tracks so that you stop going places.) If I am ever on the dozer and it is not going anywhere, I will check to see that I do not have my feet on the pedals for no good reason.
5. The blade controls are on the right. The near-right control is up/down. The far-right control is left/right angle. I will not try to make the blade go up and down by grabbing the left/right lever.
6. The fuel is located behind the back of the seat. The dozer eats diesel, which is conveniently located in the tank next to the dozer cave. Next time, I will check the fuel level at onset of dozer activities INSTEAD OF spending an hour wondering if it's going to run out before I get home. (There may be a fuel gauge, but I couldn't find it on the instrument panel things. The easiest way I know to check the fuel is to take the lid off and look inside the tank. Since the hole is big enough for me to put a fist in, visual confirmation of fuel level is pretty easy.)
7. Backing up, I will use the convenient and easy left-side back-neutral-forward lever. I will also remember to pull the wrong lever to steer when going in a reversely direction. (The dozer has a gearshift on the floor between the driver's feet. The gearshift has three forward gears and one backward gear. Generally, plowing is done in 2 and 3, which are the speedier gears. I can make the dozer go backward in 1, 2, or 3 by shifting the magical left-side lever into back so I'm not at all sure why there is also a reverse GEAR on the gearshift. This was not adequately explained to me at the bulldozer-driving seminar. In theory, I should be able to put the dozer in the reverse GEAR and then move the left-side lever to back so that the dozer would then go forward, but I have not ever tried this due to the nonzero chance that it could make the dozer explode. Bulldozers, even little ones like ours, are expensive.)
8. I will always remember to pick up blade before attempting reverse. (This is also a useful dumptruck tip.)
9. I will grab a headset before I get on the dozer instead of arriving at the idea that a headset might be a good idea when I'm a mile and a half out. Noise induced hearing loss is not good for me.
10. I will dress warmly if it's winter. Winter bulldozer driving is invariably in cold, miserable weather. I will be sitting pretty still for at least an hour, so I should wear lots of clothes. Suggested list: underwear, eyestrain purple socks, flannel jeans, turtleneck, tank top, long-sleeved shirt, sweatshirt, flannel quilty, blue snap shirt, ugly hat, big scarf o' purple mohair, red mittens, blue-felt-lined booties.
How's the road? Better than it was this afternoon. I ran up and back the main road and then down and back to my house. Nothing else is plowed but we're still midweek and I was freezing. I figure I'll hit the other side of the lake after work tomorrow and from my house down to Dad's on Friday.
Time spent fucking around on Valley activities: 2 hr, 15 minutes, employed in bulldozing icy wintery mix crap off the road, Feb. 14, 2007.
Running total for 2007: 3 hr, 15 minutes.
I do not doze particularly often. It's loud. It's time-consuming because the dozer, she is not made for speed. It's not something where you say, "Y'know what I'd like to do today? I'd like to drive the bulldozer around!" So, this thing that I do once or maybe twice a year, I could use more practice at it. I suck, honestly. Every time I climb up on the poor dozer, I have to figure out what I'm doing all over again. I should probably take notes. Here are some notes that I should probably take.
1. The dozer can of starting fluid, it does not spray so much as dribble. This stll seemed amazingly efficacious, but I think I should invest in a more aerosol can of starting fluid anyway.
2. The dozer, she shifts into different gears with less swearing if I remember to put the longer left-side lever (which would probably say something like back-neutral-forward if the lables were in any way readable) into neutral (that's the one in the middle) before trying to shift gears instead of after I've tried three or four times and can't figure out why it is not working.
3. I will remember to crank up throttle control (short knob on left side, has notches) to 3/4 or more before expecting dozer to run happily. Also: Is it just me, or does the throttle kind of lag a bit? I mean, I jog it up and then I wait five seconds and then there's Brrrrbrrprbrrrprbp! It takes a while, is what I'm sayin'.
4. I will not expect the dozer to move forward if I have my feet on the pedals. The pedals are for stopping. (The left pedal shuts down the fuel to a slow idle. The right pedal brakes the tracks so that you stop going places.) If I am ever on the dozer and it is not going anywhere, I will check to see that I do not have my feet on the pedals for no good reason.
5. The blade controls are on the right. The near-right control is up/down. The far-right control is left/right angle. I will not try to make the blade go up and down by grabbing the left/right lever.
6. The fuel is located behind the back of the seat. The dozer eats diesel, which is conveniently located in the tank next to the dozer cave. Next time, I will check the fuel level at onset of dozer activities INSTEAD OF spending an hour wondering if it's going to run out before I get home. (There may be a fuel gauge, but I couldn't find it on the instrument panel things. The easiest way I know to check the fuel is to take the lid off and look inside the tank. Since the hole is big enough for me to put a fist in, visual confirmation of fuel level is pretty easy.)
7. Backing up, I will use the convenient and easy left-side back-neutral-forward lever. I will also remember to pull the wrong lever to steer when going in a reversely direction. (The dozer has a gearshift on the floor between the driver's feet. The gearshift has three forward gears and one backward gear. Generally, plowing is done in 2 and 3, which are the speedier gears. I can make the dozer go backward in 1, 2, or 3 by shifting the magical left-side lever into back so I'm not at all sure why there is also a reverse GEAR on the gearshift. This was not adequately explained to me at the bulldozer-driving seminar. In theory, I should be able to put the dozer in the reverse GEAR and then move the left-side lever to back so that the dozer would then go forward, but I have not ever tried this due to the nonzero chance that it could make the dozer explode. Bulldozers, even little ones like ours, are expensive.)
8. I will always remember to pick up blade before attempting reverse. (This is also a useful dumptruck tip.)
9. I will grab a headset before I get on the dozer instead of arriving at the idea that a headset might be a good idea when I'm a mile and a half out. Noise induced hearing loss is not good for me.
10. I will dress warmly if it's winter. Winter bulldozer driving is invariably in cold, miserable weather. I will be sitting pretty still for at least an hour, so I should wear lots of clothes. Suggested list: underwear, eyestrain purple socks, flannel jeans, turtleneck, tank top, long-sleeved shirt, sweatshirt, flannel quilty, blue snap shirt, ugly hat, big scarf o' purple mohair, red mittens, blue-felt-lined booties.
How's the road? Better than it was this afternoon. I ran up and back the main road and then down and back to my house. Nothing else is plowed but we're still midweek and I was freezing. I figure I'll hit the other side of the lake after work tomorrow and from my house down to Dad's on Friday.
Time spent fucking around on Valley activities: 2 hr, 15 minutes, employed in bulldozing icy wintery mix crap off the road, Feb. 14, 2007.
Running total for 2007: 3 hr, 15 minutes.
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Date: 2007-02-15 05:49 pm (UTC)